Most Frequently Asked Questions About Your Car

I know a lot of us on here own unique or interesting or cool cars, and if its anything like my experience, you usually get asked the same couple questions by people. So what are the ones you always hear?

For my Miata, I always get "How do you fit in that?", being 6'3" and about 240-250lbs. "Quite well" is usually the answer. "Is it fast?" is a close second, which for the first 3 years was a "Not at all" with the stock 1.6L, and now is a "Pretty darn" with the blown 1.8L. "Do you race? it would be third most popular, which usually turns into me doing an SCCA Solo recruitment speech.

My 1993 Subaru Loyale 4WD Wagon, the biggest one was "What is that?" Subaru didn't get a foothold here in CNY until the early 2000s, so EA82s were never abundant here and they've all but vanished from the landscape. "Is that a Volvo?" was a close second, because apparently only Volvo made boxy station wagons in people's minds. And "Is it supposed to be making that noise?" was pretty frequent too. The EA82 valve lifters tend to get extremely rattly (most embarrassing was having to shut it off in the drive-thru so the cashier could hear me) but they run fine, and it was a rusty $1100 car, so I wasn't that hung up on changing them out

For the rest of my cars, my Chevy Cavalier wasn't ever remarked upon because it was a Chevy Cavalier. Same with my refrigerator-white ZJ Grand Cherokee. My Acura Legend flew under the radar as "just another tan '90s Japanese sedan" and my Subaru Baja only gets people gushing how much they want one while I try not to crush their dreams about how bad they are.

"Is that an E30"

In reply to pointofdeparture :

Do you reply "No, its better"?

When I owned a 2005 Phaeton, people would invariably tell me about the VW they owned (usually a 1969 air cooled Beetle).  Yup, totally the same cars.  Identical. 

Driving any of the big, pre-war American cars from work:

"That's a real Bonnie and Clyde car!" Sure, except Clyde drove Fords.

"My -insert distant family member here- owned one just like that, except it was green... And it was a Chevy".

Driving a one-of-one Pierce-Arrow: 

"You don't see those much anymore!"

In reply to KyAllroad (Jeremy) :

My question would have been "Wait, you have a Phaeton? And it's operational?"

Mazda5 - "What is that?" and "Wait, what, the doors slide?!?"

Cobra - "Is it a clone?" and "What's it run?"

Boxster - "How much was that?"

2011 Honda Accord - why do you have a manual transmission?  

FFR Cobra replica - "Is it real"?

'67 Jag XKE w/Ford 302 conversion and ghost flames on the hood - "WTF????" from Jag purists or "Awesome" from everyone else

'99 Viper GTS - "How big (or small) is your.....?"

"What's it run?" - I've never been down a dragstrip in my life.

"What's done to the motor?" - It's a heads/cam LS3 from a 2010 Corvette. lol

The second most asked question.. 

What is it? 

The first most asked question... 

Nothing, because they don't notice it. 

1990 Infiniti Q45

Why all the stickers? 

 You race that thing? 

Do a burnout? 

"Have you replaced the apex seals/engine?"

I mostly get asked if any of them are for sale. Or "is that thing fixed yet" for the one that hasn't moved in 6 months.

2010 GX460 - Is that thing lifted? (Nope, stock suspension, I just have A/Ts that the soccer Mom's don't have)

I would say the most common is (Corvair):  How easy is it to get parts for?

Answer is: Many are common GM parts, some have to be old (cranks, blocks, heads etc.)

For those that are a bit more aware it would probably be: Those carbs must be a pain to synchronize (4 carbs)?, or do you have issues with keeping the belt on?

Answer is: No, not really (it's pretty easy with a cheap air flow meter), sometimes, but it's only really an issue with modified engines or bad pulley alignment.

2 Stroke?

Turbo?

LS swap?

B series?

The answer to every single one of these questions is 'no', but they are far and away the ones I get asked most. In a close second would have to be 'where'd you find that with so little/no rust?' Years of practice and some luck.

I get questioned about where I bought my turbo kit (cue me giving a speech about how cool the ms6 is) and if it's fwd (cue second cool speech about how cool the ms6 is). Of course all of this is dependent on people actually realizing it's not just another Mazda 6 

Daily e30-

Do you drift it?

E30truck-

What is that thing/is that a subaru?

'91 Trans am-

Is that a corvette/What is that thing?

All the others fall under the radar and never get any questions asked.

"Is there a turbo in there?"

318ti 

"Is that an M3?"

Underneath, yeah, but how would you know from the outside because they made one Euro market m3ti. 

What's wrong with it now?

Lexus gets zero questions. I assume most people don't know that the GS is not a Camry; even the parts-store guy who owns the local shop didn't know it was RWD. And he owns a Tundra.

Minivan gets the "Why'd you get a minivan?" and "Why'd you get a Kia". We got a minivan because we are smart, and a Kia because they're really berkeleying nice nowadays but nobody knows it so they're still cheap.

DD EM2 civic: 

1.) How many miles do you have on that? (a lot)

2.) Isn't it time for a new car? (no, it runs fine)

3.) Oh it's a stick! Can you teach me to drive manual? (What? No. Who are you and why are you asking me that in front of a Taco Bell?) 

The most common thing I've been asked over the years is 'How did you get that in the country, they don't sell those here'  Even though they aren't that uncommon.